How the Champions League works: the single-table format explained

The Champions League no longer has groups of four. It has a league phase with thirty-six teams in a single table, where each plays eight matches against eight different opponents — four at home and four away — and none meets all the others.

You can see it directly in the data: the table we receive from the source has thirty-six rows and a single group. Each matchday carries eighteen fixtures, but not always spread the same way: the first, on 8-10 September, was played across three evenings of six, while 13-14 October runs across two evenings of nine. Those are the two we could verify directly against the results source; we don't list the rest of the calendar because it isn't in our data today.

What changes compared with groups

Three things, and they run deeper than they look. First: teams don't play the same schedule. In a group of four everyone faced the same three opponents; here every side has its own eight, so two teams on equal points may have met very different difficulty.

Second: the table matters for all thirty-six, not for four. One extra point in November can move a side six or seven places, because there are thirty-five teams to be compared against instead of three.

Third: there is no longer a moment when «the group is settled». In groups of four, many situations were decided with two rounds to go; in a table of thirty-six a position stays mobile until the final matchday, and prices stay mobile with it.

How you get out of the league phase

This is the part that decides the tournament, and it follows from there being a single table. The top eight go straight to the round of 16. Ninth to twenty-fourth play a two-legged play-off, and the eight that come through join the top eight in the round of 16. Twenty-fifth to thirty-sixth are out, with no drop into another competition.

It has a consequence that changes how the table reads halfway through: between eighth and ninth there is a step — two extra matches to play — and between twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth there is elimination. In between sit sixteen positions that all lead to the same play-off. Exact position matters a great deal at two points and very little in the middle.

⚠ Why almost nothing can be said on matchday one

It is a limit worth explaining because it applies to every European-tie preview, not only ours.

On matchday one the table exists as a table but holds thirty-six teams on zero points and zero matches played: that order is alphabetical, not merit. Anyone using it writes sentences like «fourth against thirty-first» that look like information and aren't.

Form within the competition doesn't exist by definition. And head-to-head records almost never do: between two clubs from different countries meeting for the first time there is no history to consult.

We also tested the obvious shortcut — using each club's form in its own domestic league — on a Europa League matchday one: of thirty-six sides only seven had at least three recent matches in our archive, and for five there wasn't a single row. Seven out of thirty-six isn't a measurement.

What stays measurable

The price. And on European ties the price says something you don't see in domestic leagues: the books sit far closer together. On the Europa League matchday one of 16-17 September the distance between the highest and lowest margin ran from 0.41 to 1.73 points, measured across the sixteen matches of eighteen that all three operators price; on the Ligue 1 round of the same weekend it runs from 5.62 to 6.69 points, across seven of eight. Matches priced by only two books stay out of both sums, because a distance between two prices isn't comparable with one between three.

When the sporting data is missing, what remains isn't «less information»: it is different information, and it is worth saying which.

What to look at from matchday two onwards

• The table starts to separate sides, but slowly: with eight matches in total, each single result weighs about as much as five league rounds.
• Who a side has faced matters more than usual, because it isn't the same for everyone. Two teams on equal points haven't played the same tournament.
• Head-to-heads stay absent for a long time: it takes years for two clubs from different countries to meet often enough to leave a trace.
• ⚠ And averages across eight matches remain averages across eight matches, which is a number that moves a great deal.

The calendar for upcoming matchdays and the league-phase table are in the statistics section; the comparison between operators on each match is on the odds page.